


The River

by Liryczna



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 20:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4492803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liryczna/pseuds/Liryczna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a saying about rivers, one he could not really remember, but it stayed half-spoken at the tip of his tongue.</p><p>Requested by lailerosse on http://liryczna.tumblr.com/.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The River

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chaosite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaosite/gifts).



There was a saying about rivers, one he could not really remember, but it stayed half-spoken at the tip of his tongue. He knew he had read it in a book owned by his father, a silly tome squeezed between encyclopedias at the lowest shelf of Lord Allendale’s library. It was a fairy tale book, maybe bought as a fancy or received as a gift, removed carefully from the respectable collection and hidden just out of sight. It was covered in dust when he took it out, and he spend days reading it in secret, memorizing page after page of a story about dragons, princesses and kings.

Now, after everything that happened, it no longer seemed wrong to have scars without honors and a dragon instead of a ship, to be left standing on the ground that was not British and reach out towards hands not fragile and pale, but instead capable and strong. Still, Laurence knew better than to question himself now, when he finally got back everything he had lost. He swallowed his secrets with a sip of wine and sometimes muttered them quietly when even Tharkay finally fell asleep buried under covers of Laurence’s bed.

There was a saying about rivers and beginnings and ends, all sharp blue lines tangled on the vast reaches of maps spread out on the tables of generals, emperors and kings. It was there, just beyond his reach, but it did not matter, because they all found each other in the end, water to water, together in the great blue of the horizon Laurence saw every time he fell asleep.


End file.
